It was either Nixon or Reagan
who pioneered the policy of deliberately convincing your opponents you were a bit trigger happy, overly agressive, or likely to do something inappropriate without thinking it through. The idea was to make your enemy's planning a bit more complex and uncertain.
It's a valid strategy--if your opponent is also a rational man. But as Caspar Gutman once told Sam Spade,
"That's an attitude, sir, that calls for the most delicate judgement on both sides. Because, as you know, in the heat of action... ...men are likely to forget where their best interests lie... ...and let their emotions carry them away."